Coiler



Dec. 6, 1955 H. C. DEICHERT COILER Filed Feb. 9, 1953 3nventor (women United States Patent CQILER Application February 9, 1953, Serial No. 335,657 3 Claims. c1. 242-78 This invention relates to a coiler for coiling or winding up strips of metal as formed by a slitter from a relatively wide sheet.

In the production of a plurality of elongated sheet metal strips, such as used to make the slats of Venetian blinds, a roll of wide sheet metal is fed to a slitting machine and the resultant strips are wound up on a coiler. For various reasons, among which are the imparting of stretch to the metal by the slitting rolls and the fact that the original sheet is not of uniform length throughout but rather may have wavy edges that indicate greater length at the edges than at medial portions, the difierent strips differ in length. Conventional coilers wind or take up these strips uniformly. Consequently, substantial sag is built up in some of the strips as they pass from the slitter to the coiler. Ofttimes, this sag becomes so great that even if the slitter and coil are spaced fifteen or more feet (which is the present practice) some strips may have so much sag as to drag along the floor. Moreover, the strips that are taut are wound up tightly while those with sag are loosely wound.

Recognizing the above-mentioned faults in coilers that take up a plurality of strips at a uniform rate, it is an object of this invention to provide a coiler that will take or wind up a plurality of strips at rates varying according to the amount of tautness or slack in the dilferent strips.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved coiler that provides for slippage in the portions winding up the tauter strips so that the portions winding up the less taut or slacker strips can catch up, thereby resulting in a coiler that continuously absorbs slack in the latter strips and, thereby, winds up the different strips uniformly.

The invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description. However, the drawing merely shows and the following description merely describes one embodiment of the present invention which is given by way of illustration or example only.

In the drawing, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side view of a slitting line having a conventional payoff and slitter, and the present improved coiler.

Fig. 2 is a considerably enlarged and fragmentary side view, in quarter section, of a coiler according to the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view as taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2 showing several layers of strips coiled thereon.

With particular reference to Fig. l, a conventional payoff 5 mounts a relatively wide roll of sheet metal or the like. 6; the sheet 7 from said roll is passed through a slitter 8, the slitting rolls 9 of which divide the sheet into a plurality of strips 10; and a coiler 11, according to the invention, winds up said strips into a plurality of coils 12without undue sag in one or more of the strips and with substantial uniformity of tightness of wind of said coils.

.Fig. 1, at 10a, shows how undesired slack is built up in a.strip 10 and it will be realized that such slack may become unduly large, as hereinbefore discussed. The present coiler prevents such slack as will be later seen.

Since the present improvements are embodied in a conventional coiler, the old elements of such a coiler will be first described. A coiler usually comprises a drum orcore 13, mounted on a rotating shaft 14, and arranged to contract or expand as by means 15. This expanding and contracting feature is provided to enable removal of the coils 12 in which case, the normally expanded drum is contracted so the coils may be easily slipped off.

The drum 13 is usually formed of three arcuate sections 16 that are connected to shaft 14 by spider arms 17. Hinges 18 connect two of the sections 16 to the longitudinal edges of the third, and the means 15 swings the free edges of said two sections on hinges 18 inward or outward, as the case may be, to expand or contract the drum accordingly.

The usual form of the means 15 comprises a longitudinal member 19 having sloping cam faces 20, and a complementary elongated member 21 having similar cam faces 22 engaged with faces 20. In the drawing, a member 21 is carried by the free edge of each swingable drum section and is longitudinally immovable. The member 19 is guided for longitudinal movement in guide blocks 23 and such movement is usually eif ected through the medium of hydraulic or pneumatic equipment which is not shown because the same is Well-known.

The present improvements are applied to the above described conventional coiler and comprise a friction lining 24 on the outer surface of each section 16, and a set of slip rings 25 encircling the lined sections, the Width of each slip ring being made according to the Width of the strip 10 to be coiled thereon. Also, dividing flanges 26 may be interposed between adjacent slip rings, as shown, as a precaution against lateral runoif as the strips 10 form coils 12.

In operation, cam member 19 is set so as to effect a firm grip between friction linings 24 and slip rings 25. As the coiler winds up strips 10, sag or slack will appear in one or more of the strips. When this occurs, a slight adjustment is made in the position of member 19 in a direction to contract the drum and thus ease the pull on these slip rings that wind up the tauter strips. Such adjustment will allow slight and friction-resistant slippage of the latter rings enabling the other slip rings to take up such slack. It will be realized that a setting of member 19 can be achieved that will permit slight slippage of all of the rings and the drum rotated at a speed greater than needed to take up the strips as they come from the slitter. Thus, the different slip rings may slip according to the degree of pull on the different strips and all of the coils 12 will be wound up substantially uniformly.

Since the slippage is not great, by using conventional brake, automative brake lining for linings 24 and making rings 25 of metal, long life is assured and with little likelihood of generating undue heat.

While I have illustrated and described what I now contemplate to be the best mode of carrying out my invention, the construction is, of course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is, therefore, not desired to restrict the invention to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim and desire to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. in a coiler for simultaneously winding a plurality of separate strips of varying tension upon a plurality of cylindrical slip rings of uniform diameter, said coiler comprising a shaft, a core mounted on said shaft, said core comprising a plurality of arcuate sections of which at least one is movable relative to the others to expand and contract the core, a friction liner on the other face of said core, said liner being expansible and contractible with said core, said liner forming a mounting for said slip rings, whereby the coils forming on said slip rings are relatively movable about said liner in accordance with the tension of the separate strips.

2. In a coiler structure for coiling a plurality of strips of varying tension, said coiler comprising a shaft, an expansible core mounted on said shaft, a friction liner mounted on said core, said liner being formed of sections and being expansible and contractible with said core, and a plurality of slip rings arranged in side by side relation on said liner and frictionally engaging same, whereby said slip rings may separately rotate on said liner to compensate for variable tension in said strips.

3 The structure of claim 2 characterized in that the slip rings are separated by spacer plates.

References Cited'in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,216,463 Steiner Oct. 1, 1940 2,431,130 Luchansky Nov. 18, 1947 2,578,953 Tyrrell Dec. 18, 1951 2,594,800 Ranney Apr. 29, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 11,998 Great Britain 1908 

